UK student hoping to go to Harvard Medical School

You don't have to specifically go to Harvard College before Harvard med school; some people do, but it's a separate application and lots of people don't. I'm not sure how med school works in the UK, but in the US you first get a BSc, commonly in biology or chemistry or similar, and then apply for medical school like a masters program. I don't think it matters whether you go to sixth form or college beforehand - US admissions officers probably won't know the difference. Are planning on practicing medicine in the US?

Don't let the word 'college' confuse you - Harvard College is just the name of the undergraduate division of Harvard University. Having A-levels would be a requirement to apply to Harvard College.

There is absolutely no need to go to Harvard College to apply to Harvard medical school. Any US university for undergrad would work. You can get your bachelor's degree from anywhere in anything - so long as you complete the required pre-med classes.

The HMS required preparation is:
- two years (4 classes) of chemistry, including biochemistry, organic chem, and organic chem. Lab experience required.
- one year of biology, particularly molecular and cellular. Lab experience required.
- one year of physics. Lab experience recommended.
- one year of maths, including calculus and statistics.
- one year of writing intensive courses (humanities and social sciences with a heavily writing component)
- a behavioural science class (e.g. psych or sociology) is recommended

However, if you're not a US citizen or permanent resident, I would definitely advise you to stay in the UK for your medical education as you would seriously struggle with both funding medical school and securing a residency. There is also the fact that it would take A LOT longer. A bachelor's degree (which would take 4 years in the US, not 3) is required to apply to a US medical school (med school is another 4 years) plus residency.

Do you have US residency? It would be very hard to get into Harvard med without it. Also - you would need to do a first degree which covers the pre-requisites for US med school. In reality that means doing a degree in either the US or Canada.

Thank you for this
It helps
I have family in the US so if I was struggling with residency, I would probably stay with them for a period of time.

Thank you for this
It helps
I have family in the US so if I was struggling with residency, I would probably stay with them for a period of time.

Apparently, you need to do at least one year of education before you can actually apply for HMS. Would going to Harvard College count towards that one year or would it not, considering it’s just a separate division of the university?

I think by residency they meant clinical placement/foundation year type of thing not accommodation

You seem to have misunderstood the requirement- YOU will need to have 4 years of University before applying to Harvard Medical School - either a 4 year Bachelors from a US institution, or a UK 3-year bachelor + at least 1 year of required premed classes in the US, if you can find a University that will allow it, and if you can afford it.
Afterwards, between Medical school and "required residency" practical training, you need to budget upwards of 400k, on top of the cost of your undergraduate education. Only 1% of medical students in the US are non-Americans, and most of those are Canadian as the two systems match up quite well.
Don't get thrown off by the different terminology- in the UK, College normally indicates the last 2 years of high school (A-Levels, IB etc), in the US it's synonimus with University after A-levels. GL

Slow down. Re-read the replies you've gotten. You're glossing over a very important piece of information we've given you, and because of that we're misunderstanding what other things we're saying.

You need a bachelor's degree to apply to a US medical school. This degree can be in any subject and does not have to have been awarded by the same university whose medical school one ends up attending, but as part of that undergraduate curriculum, US medical schools have a list of university classes that must be taken at a US or Canadian university.

Once a person graduates with an MD from a US medical school, the next part of training is residency done at a hospital. Depending on the specialty, residency takes 3-7 years. It is after completing residency that one takes the US Medical Licensing Examination. An F-1 (student visa) can be used to give you the right to live in the United States during undergrad and medical school, but not residency. And knowing people in the US does not give you the right to live and work in the United States.

You need to learn how the US system works first.

Firstly college in the US means university (specifically undergraduate studies, or generally the/a university).

As above you need an undergraduate degree to apply directly to medical school anywhere in the US as medicine is a postgraduate degree only there.

You do not need an undergad degree from Harvard to go to medical school there. Due to the premed coursework requirements you functionally do need to study your undergrad in the US, as you need 2 semesters of biology, 4 of chemistry though to organic chemistry (the final semester can or sometimes must be biochemistry), 2 semesters of physics, and usually 2 semesters of calculus and/or stats, AND at least one year studying science in an accredited US college. The only UK uni you can take that combination of subjects is Cambridge natsci, and even that will not fulfill the need to do a year of science classes in the US.

Both undergraduate studies and medicine are extremely expensive in the US and for the latter especially there is extremely limited funding available. In either case SFE will not find degrees abroad and the US federal funding does not find international students (much as sfe here doesn't). Therefore you need to have either around half a million dollars lying around in cash for the full trip, or for the undergrad get a scholarship, or apply to a college that commits to meeting all demonstrated financial need and ideally is need blind (which is basically just the extremely competitive elite college). And then figure out how to fund medical school there.

Basically the amount of effort and the level of excellence you need to demonstrate through academics and extracurriculars to get into a college in the US such that you can afford to study there for undergrad, much less the medical degree, is such that you would most likely be an extremely strong applicant for medicine in the UK anyway.

Also bear in mind even if you do get a medical degree in the US, that does not confer right to work in the US. In order to be sponsored for a working visa in the US, the sponsoring employer needs to demonstrate there are no suitable qualified American applicants for the job. Therefore, even aside from various other reasons, you would be pretty much limited to only non-competitive specialties like psychiatry, family medicine, or rural medicine and all in probably reasonably rural areas.

Essentially in almost no world is this likely if even feasible, and even if you did manage it then your dreams of presumably becoming a multimillion dollar earning surgeon in a big city (which is the only reason I can assume anyone is interested in practicing medicine in the US since their healthcare system is beyond broken, not to mention their education system and postgraduate medical training demands expecting you to have 36 hour shifts and work 100+ hour weeks) is not going to happen anyway due to how the visa situation plays out.

So you would be best off just pursuing medicine in the UK, honestly.

If you're sure you're still interested in the US, you'll need to look into applying to US universities for your bachelor's degree. Check out the pinned threads in this forum (especially the US Universities Application Guide), give them a thorough read, and come back with any questions you may have. We'd love to help answer them!

Hey

So, I’m hoping to eventually go to Harvard Medical School. I currently live in the UK and I am planning on going to sixth form but I’m unsure of what to do in terms of education after. I would be grateful if someone could help me understand a few things:

If I want to go to Harvard Med, should I go to Harvard college beforehand?

And to go to Harvard college, should and could I go to sixth form first?

Do I even have to go to Harvard college before Harvard Med?

Thank you for any responses.

You don't have to specifically go to Harvard College before Harvard med school; some people do, but it's a separate application and lots of people don't. I'm not sure how med school works in the UK, but in the US you first get a BSc, commonly in biology or chemistry or similar, and then apply for medical school like a masters program. I don't think it matters whether you go to sixth form or college beforehand - US admissions officers probably won't know the difference. Are planning on practicing medicine in the US?